‘On a relatively translucent piece of paper, I draw lines on the front and the back.’ This statement by Dekkers is from the catalogue accompanying a drawing exhibition with P. Struycken for the Jac Eyck paint company in Heerlen. This statement couldn’t be clearer. Get to a point where the relief gives way to transparent sheets with lines, which, as it were, collides with the wall; then the line is the only remaining means of an image.

In a short period from the mid-sixties to 1974, Ad Dekkers built up an impressive body of work, which sought purity using visual elements. In a period dominated by intense painting, Dekkers devoted himself to reformulating the geometric abstraction redolent of Mondriaan and his contemporaries at the beginning of the twentieth century. By objectifying the artwork and making it subject to certain ordering principles, he established a second important step in abstract geometry.

This exhibition was curated as a result Jo and Marlies Eijck’s commitment to the artist Ad Dekkers. Already in 1967, the Jac Eyck paint factory in Heerlen showed Dekkers’ reliefs and published a booklet with blind stamping. ‘Zeshoek en ruit in overgang’ (Hexagon and Diamond in Transition) from 1967 featured in this exhibition and was the couple’s first acquisition, marking the beginning of a collection to which Ad Dekkers’ work would be central. The exhibited works came from various private collections, museums, and the estate of Ad Dekkers.

This exhibition was realised in collaboration with the Bonnefanten Museum.